7 Responses to “Denny’s Adventures in Allee Willis’ “Willis Wonderland” Part 117 – August 2010)”

  1. Allee Willis

    The Bingo dogs in photo number one are resin napkin holders. rolling up the napkins and sticking them in the hole echoes the bone going through the dog’s mouth.

    My love for colored wooden toothpicks is exceeded only by them being Worlds Fair brand. And that they came in a little glass jar with a tin top.

    I love Shriners stuff. Sphinx inclusion always reminds me of my Earth, Wind & Fire roots. Love anything vintage from Los Angeles, especially coming from the perfect year, 1950, and I love, love, love see-through colored plastic. Much more on this salt-and-pepper shaker here: https://www.alleewillis.com/awmok/kitschenette/2010/01/07/shriners-salt-pepper-shaker/

    The trophy in the last two photos is huge. 20 inches tall and unbelievably heavy. That it was given by the Hebrew Free Loan Association In Los Angeles with the big Jewish star on it makes it a perfect champagne bucket.

  2. BeeJay

    The Salt & Pepper shaker is great. I was totally surprised as I´ve read about Shriners the first time. I knew Freemasons very well, but Shriners are not that well known here in germany. They caught my attention the first time as I´ve seen a picture of one of their parades driving those little cars.

  3. Mark Milligan

    That trophy is spectacular!

    BeeJay where I grew up our neighbors had a little corvette shriners car that they let me drive around about once a year. It was red, it was fast, and the drives were never long enough before the old man would flag me down and send me home. They had a dog that they taught how to pray over cookies. They had a corvette shriner’s car, they lived next door to the Dairy Queen, and had no kids. Curly and Elizabeth Gennrich, and their praying dog “Sweetie-Pie.”

    • BeeJay

      Mark, a corvette? That´s wicked! I would love to own such a car, would be just my size, I guess :)) A dog praying over cookies sounds spectacular, how did he do it??

  5. Mark Milligan

    Yes, a dog that prays. Have you ever seen “Nunsense?”

    Either way that has nothing to do with it, except I have this vision of an old lady dressing her dog up in a habit with rosary beads.

    Seriously, she would get the dog to sit, and cross it’s front legs slightly, while saying “pray, sweetie-pie!” over and over again in a very shrill voice. And her cookies totally sucked.

    • windupkitty

      hahah wow…great stories!!!!!! when i was in my teens i volunteered at an animal shelter and one day we had this tiny little mutt come in who actually would pray ! she’s sit up and put her front paws together…no fooling…and every time you picked her up, she went straight into pray mode….so funny…we could never figure out if she had learned it somewhere, if her paws naturally went that way since her legs were so short or if she got so much praise that she jsut kept doing it..so funny…she got adopted quickly!